The Trouble with Tribbles (aka Thin Clients)

[sodface]

I need to step away from ebay. The monitor just arrived today, it's a Samsung TC222W with built-in thin client. Not pictured is a Wyse 5070 currently running as my home file server and LMS server and a Wyse 3040 (same as the small ones on the left) running as my main home router. Both the server and router are running Alpine Linux and are, without a doubt, the best hardware I've had in these roles to date. Very happy with them.

As far as the rest of the group pictured, the 4 3030's (center right) the 3030lt (center left) and the 3 3040's (left) I've reloaded with Alpine for testing. The 5 M300's were the armel boxes I got for $10 a piece and I sort of gave up on after having some random file corruption that I never resolved.

Some of these will be running squeezelite I'm sure so I don't feel like this is completely off topic.

[troffasky]

Why would I choose a used Wyse 3040 over a new Pi 4? They are comparable in price and specification, but the Pi has a wealth of addons available that the Wyse terminal does not. Also, the Pi is available with more RAM.

[sodface]

Why would I choose a used Wyse 3040 over a new Pi 4?

I re-read my post and I can't spot where I advocated that?

They are comparable in price and specification, but the Pi has a wealth of addons available that the Wyse terminal does not. Also, the Pi is available with more RAM.

I have a Pi4, had a Pi3 B+, have an original model A, an A+ and at least 10 zero W's. I'm not anti-Pi by any stretch. I got the used 3040's for around $35 a piece and they were wifi models, which many on ebay aren't. So I guest it depends on what your plans are for it and what kind of deal you get. $35 for a 4x4 inch x86_64 box with a traditional BIOS, wifi, case, power supply, USB 3 etc. is a pretty good deal if you don't need GPIO for whatever application you plan to use it for.

For me, I just enjoy looking for good deals and tinkering around with different hardware.

[sodface]

Ooops, got another offer accepted. $10 each shipped on these, checked them all out tonight - working good. These are 5020's DX0Q.

[sodface]

I picked up an HP T430 thin client recently. Alpine, squeezelite and jivelite all loaded without issue. Didn't try LMS but I'm sure it would be fine, just limited by the 16GB onboard storage. Compared to the Wyse/Dell models I have, kind of nice to have HDMI and 3.5mm at least on the side instead of the front. Not sure why they insist on putting the 3.5mm audio out on the front on most of these as I would guess anyone using these for their intended purpose would still be connecting them to desktop speakers, not headphones.

[Patricia P]

I agree. The right thin client with the right os can be rock solid.

I'm running lms on HP t520 with the max 60 gb m.2 drive running Snakeoil os.

I paid £25 for hp including 60w psu which means I can attach USB3 external drives without needing a powered hub.

[sodface]

Not a thin client but I thought I'd add it to this thread anyway. I picked up a Scala Media Player L off ebay, it arrived tonight. It's got an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 like the Wyse 3040. I installed Alpine x86_64 without issue and got squeezelite going for a quick check. Working good.

It's a nice form factor, smaller than it looks. Why on earth they put the power on the side is beyond me. So power on the side, headphone jack in the back. Irritating!

[coldslabs]

Not a thin client but I thought I'd add it to this thread anyway. I picked up a Scala Media Player L off ebay, it arrived tonight. It's got an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 like the Wyse 3040. I installed Alpine x86_64 without issue and got squeezelite going for a quick check. Working good.

It's a nice form factor, smaller than it looks. Why on earth they put the power on the side is beyond me. So power on the side, headphone jack in the back. Irritating!

This looks pretty interesting. I'm considering picking one up to use as an LMS and pi-hole server. Any update after using it for a bit?

[sodface]

This looks pretty interesting. I'm considering picking one up to use as an LMS and pi-hole server. Any update after using it for a bit?

No update, I actually haven't used it all since I first received it and tested it. It's a nice size, but for your use you might be better off with:

https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?115996-Seneca-HDS

since it has an internal msata port (though I haven't tested it yet, I assume it's useable).

[coldslabs]

No update, I actually haven't used it all since I first received it and tested it. It's a nice size, but for your use you might be better off with:

https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?115996-Seneca-HDS

since it has an internal msata port (though I haven't tested it yet, I assume it's useable).

The Seneca HDS does look like a better option. I pulled the trigger. Thanks for posting all your interesting finds and experiments!

[markiii]

just received mine. nice bit of kit, not horrendously slow even running win 10. will stick an msata in and see how that fairs

[sodface]

The Seneca HDS does look like a better option. I pulled the trigger. Thanks for posting all your interesting finds and experiments!

No problem! Hope it works for you.

just received mine. nice bit of kit, not horrendously slow even running win 10. will stick an msata in and see how that fairs

I'm interested in your test results!

[coldslabs]

Seneca HDS

So far so good with the Seneca HDS. I installed Debian 11 (with XFCE), LMS/docker and pi-hole. Everything has been running great for a few weeks.

The only problem I encountered was trying to get it to boot off a USB drive. I tried a number of configuration suggestions for UEFI but was never successful. I ended up burning a CD from the Debian ISO and using an external DVD drive.

@markiii - Any success installing an msata SSD in your Seneca HDS?

[markiii]

yep, all in and working, much much faster than the emmc memory

[Jeff07971]

So far so good with the Seneca HDS. I installed Debian 11 (with XFCE), LMS/docker and pi-hole. Everything has been running great for a few weeks.

The only problem I encountered was trying to get it to boot off a USB drive. I tried a number of configuration suggestions for UEFI but was never successful. I ended up burning a CD from the Debian ISO and using an external DVD drive.

@markiii - Any success installing an msata SSD in your Seneca HDS?

I've been playing with my Seneca HDS's (Thanks Markii) with Debian 11 I had no trouble booting from USB

You need to drop to BIOS Setup and use "Boot override"

Tested so far on Debian 11.3 x64:

LMS Seems to work fine
Squeezelite Seems to work fine
mSATA (An old Samsung PM851) works fine but errors in syslog IMO due to the msata not supporting some options
Jivelite has some problems, I'll post here if I can find an answer

Jeff